ML Connection Newsletter

Hello West Grand!

School is off to a great start, and our multilingual learners are working hard, building confidence, and making progress in their classes. We are excited to continue working together to create meaningful learning opportunities and provide the best possible experience for our ML community of students. Thank you for your continued support, collaboration, and commitment to helping all of our students thrive!

In this month's update:

1. WIDA Corner

2. Language Focus of the Month: The Language of Narration

3. Cultural Connections

4. Teacher Shout Out

WIDA 2026: Building Gateways to Colaboración

The 2026 WIDA Annual Conference centered on “Building gateways to colaboración” and the power of working together to support multilingual learners. A major takeaway was that language development is not separate from content learning—it happens when students are given meaningful opportunities to use language, engage with grade-level content, share their stories, and demonstrate what they CAN DO. As educators, our collaboration and intentional language supports can help create classrooms where every multilingual learner feels included, challenged, and valued.

Key Language Use: NARRATE

Narrating is an important language skill for multilingual learners because it helps students share experiences, tell stories, and explain events in a clear sequence. In every classroom, students have opportunities to narrate when they describe what happened, retell information, explain a process, or share a personal experience.

Try it in your classroom: Invite students to use first, next, then, and finally to organize their ideas. Provide visuals, word banks, and sentence frames such as “First, ___ happened. Next, ___.” These supports help ML students focus on communicating their ideas while continuing to develop academic language.

• September 15th to October 15th - National Hispanic Heritage Month: Honoring the histories, cultures, and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America
• October 15th 5:00-7:00 - Multicultural Night at the West Grand Jr./Sr. High School: "Our Stories, Our Voices"
• Moon Festival: A traditional East Asian celebration featuring lanterns and mooncakes

A BIG thank you to teachers who create welcoming spaces for English learners every day. If you would like your class featured next month, share a quick photo or story of how you support language learning in your classroom! Don't be shy!

Send to: Rhonda Ilgner, ilgnerr@wgsd.us